


More Than

by Cephy



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Community: areyougame, Escape, Human Experimentation, Wingfic, Xeno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-03
Updated: 2011-10-03
Packaged: 2017-10-24 06:55:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/260378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cephy/pseuds/Cephy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He didn't remember their names, but he couldn't leave them behind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	More Than

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "Sephiroth/Cloud/Zack: xeno - three escaped science experiments on the run together".

He kept moving until even the memory of smoke had vanished behind them. It was night, though that hardly mattered when he could _feel_ the shape of the earth beneath his feet. The world around them was still, untroubled by the movement of men or monsters, untainted by the creeping aggression that marked the path of their pursuers. It was safe, for the moment. Reason told him that he could relax his guard.

Yet _reason_ could not banish his uneasiness. The memory of awakening shrouded in glass and green and silence was sharp in his mind, and the resulting flood of _rage fear denial_ still lingered bitterly in his throat. That foul place had felt all too familiar, even though he couldn't have said why. It had prompted him to lash out, to free himself, and the only thing that had made _fight_ turn to _flee_ had been--

One of the two bodies he carried stirred at last. He rather thought that one had been awake for some time, though had remained gratifyingly still and trusting in his hold while he ran. Now, however, it tugged at his shoulder in a clear request to stop.

He found a sheltered place and let his burdens down carefully. The smaller of the two was still unconscious, which was worrying; both of them were too thin and pale, with heavy shadows under their eyes. He couldn't have said why these two were so important; his memories from before waking were hazy at best. He simply knew that they were, had known from the moment he saw them in glass prisons of their own. It hadn't been a _choice_ , exactly, that led him to shatter their cages carefully around them, to give up his anger in order to carry them out of that place. He could no more have left them behind than he could have left pieces of himself.

Intent grey eyes watched as he crouched down beside them, and the uncertainty in that look _hurt_ , somehow, made him desperately wish to reassure. But if he'd had a voice, it had long since been consumed by the silence in his head. He saw the other's mouth moving in what must have been speech, and he didn't know how to say that he couldn't hear.

Instead he reached out, pressing his fingers to the back of the man's hand. The skin was fever-warm under his touch. Even the faintest brush produced a rush of sensation: he could feel the prickle of tiny hairs, the pulse of blood in capillaries, the twitch of nerves and muscles as the man thought about moving yet didn't.

 _Zack_ , was the name that came bubbling up through the man's skin, and he thought: _yes, of course_.

He drew back from the touch before it became too distracting. He had made that mistake once already, the very first time, catching hold of those two precious bodies as they tumbled from their shattered prisons, nearly becoming lost in them. The white-coated guards had come close to capturing them again while he stood there insensible. That had been days ago, now, maybe longer. But the fascination still pulled just as strongly.

The smaller man shifted restlessly, drawing both their attention. Blue eyes gleamed brightly through half-closed lids but there was no accompanying sense of _presence_ there. He reached out, brushed a finger delicately over the cool skin of the boy's cheek, and felt the touch resonate up his arm. _Cloud_ , the touch said to him, though it was overlain with a strange hesitance.

He could feel scars on Cloud's back, right over the shoulders, right where the wings were anchored on his own body. He could feel the shift as the air around Cloud coiled and trembled. Could feel the rising tide of the silence in the boy's mind. It didn't necessarily mean anything, of course, nothing that could be proven until Cloud woke. But the implications were clear.

It didn't matter, he decided. If the boy ended up being like him, then so be it. Perhaps they could learn to speak to each other through the silence. Zack, he somehow knew, was likely to stay by them either way.

At that moment Zack looked worried, one hand stroking slowly through Cloud's hair. The gesture seemed to comfort them both, made Cloud's restless shifting subside; on impulse, he leaned forward and did the same for Zack, momentarily fascinated by the soft slide of the strands against his palm. It made Zack look up, grinning widely, the corners of his shadowed eyes crinkling.

 _Sephiroth_ , the curve of Zack's mouth said, and the word seared itself across his thoughts.

One of Zack's hands captured his own as he made to withdraw, tugging at his fingers to draw his attention. Zack pointed at his own ear and then his mouth, wearing a questioning expression, and it was with a sense of relief that Sephiroth shook his head. Zack _understood_.

Zack tapped at his fingers again, ran light touches up his arm. Testing, Sephiroth realized. His own flesh was different from Zack's, hard and cold, though he thought that it hadn't always been so. The sad, stricken look on Zack's face as he discovered the differences seemed to agree.

Sephiroth found he didn't like that look. He reached out and touched Zack's face, drawing his gaze up, then leaned back so he could spread his arms and his wings wide. He gathered himself, pushing at the air around him until it shivered-- not that it took much effort. The wind had curled around him like a living thing ever since his awakening. He could have done so much more, could have called to the lightning and the fire and the earth so close at hand, but he didn't intend to frighten, merely to show. _Look,_ he wanted to say. _Perhaps I am not what I was, but that is no reason to grieve._

The sadness wasn't quite banished from Zack's smile, but it was eclipsed by something warm and wondering. Sephiroth let his arms and wings fall, let the air settle, and for the moment, at least, he let that be enough.


End file.
